When the Madras High Court reopens on Monday after summer vacation, it would begin hearing scores of cases filed in connection with Sterlite copper plant in Thoothukudi district. One other important case to be taken up this month relates to alleged illegal beach sand mining in Thoothukudi and the contiguous districts of Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari.
The case gains significance in the wake of a report submitted by amicus curiae V. Suresh who suspected a huge amount of monazite tailings, a radioactive mineral and an important ore for thorium, was shipped out of the country by private miners and exporters in the guise of exporting beach sand minerals and thereby posing a grave threat to national security.
Beach sand minerals, also called as rare earth or heavy minerals, comprise a suite of seven minerals — garnet, silimanite, rutile, ilmenite, leucoxene, zircon and monazite. These minerals are found mixed with sea sand in various compositions and have to be extracted separately through different methods.
“Of these seven minerals, monazite is a radioactive atomic mineral and an important source for production of thorium from which uranium is derived. Monazite-thorium is a central component of India’s nuclear policy, especially the indigenous nuclear power programme and is considered a matter of key national security concern,” Mr. Suresh had told the court.
CBI probe favoured
Pointing out that none other than public sector undertaking Indian Rare Earths (IRE) was permitted to extract monazite from beach sand, he recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe “into national and international dimensions of illegal transportation and export of minerals (by private miners) over the last two decades.”
After a comparative analysis of the amount of raw sand declared to have been mined and the quantum for which transport permits had been issued and a host of other documents, Mr. Suresh feared that several lakh tonnes of beach sand could have been mined illegally and equivalent amount of minerals exported.
Pursuant to his report, the High Court directed the Centre as well as the State government to consider constituting a special team to find out the raw beach sand and minerals stocked in the three districts and the latter appointed IAS officer Satyabrata Sahoo to inspect the stock yards and submit a report on the quantum of minerals stored.
Subsequently, the High Court directed the special team to utilise the services of Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMDER) in Hyderabad and that Indian Bureau of Mines to collect samples from the stock yards and make an assessment of the availability of monazite in the stocks available at present.
The studies were carried out as per court directions and in his report, Mr. Sahoo stated that his team had found that 1.55 crore tonnes of stocks (including raw sand, semi processed sand and other individual minerals) were stored by the miners in the three districts though the quantity declared by them was only 85.58 lakh tonnes.
“Thus there is a massive difference of 69,89,946 tonnes between the quantum of beach sand minerals assessed by the special team and the quantum declared as stocks by plant owners/lease holders. Hence, issues related to mining, transportation of minerals and their storage require appropriate supervision. A proper system may be devised,” his report read.
Traces of monazite
In so far as assessment of monazite tailings was concerned, it stated that a preliminary report submitted by AMDER revealed that 87 out of 177 samples collected from the godowns, dump locations, processing plants and mining areas in the three districts had more than the upper limit of 0.25% of monazite equivalent.
To reconfirm the results, the AMDER conducted another assessment in Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts alone and once again 31 out of 43 samples collected from the two districts were found to have more than 0.25% of monazite equivalent. “Thus, AMD reports reveal that 53% of samples record more than 0.25% monazite equivalent.
“This strengthens the need to have proper and regular monitoring of radiation safety standards. Exporting and trading of all beach minerals need specific supervision especially at port levels from where they are exported. Export of monazite/monazite equivalent need proper supervision at all levels in view of its radioactive nature,” Mr. Sahoo had concluded.
A Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and N. Seshasayee had ordered circulation of the exhaustive report along with its annexures to all the private miners and sought their reply by June 14.